This article examines the causes of child poverty in New Zealand and how child poverty rates might be reduced. New Zealand has tolerated significant levels of relative child poverty for more than two decades. For a country which once prided itself on being comparatively egalitarian and, more particularly, on being a great place to bring...

In 2011 New Zealand held a referendum on the future of its voting system for general elections. Following the referendum, the current voting system was retained, and the Electoral Commission reviewed the system and made recommendations for change in late 2012. In early 2013 the government’s response to those recommendations is still awaited. Recognising the...

Introduction: Using a poverty line set at 60% of New Zealand’s median national income, nearly one in five New Zealand children (19%) was poor in 2011. This poverty rate is considerably less than that of the United States and Canada, similar to that of Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, and much greater that...

In this lecture I will: • comment on some of the complex challenges of the 21st century which cry out for effective global governance reflecting today’s geopolitical and other realities; and • examine whether global governance institutions – particularly in the areas of peace and security, economic governance, sustainable development and climate change – have...

"There appears to be a widespread assumption that there is a ‘silent majority’ of people who support proposals but do not make submissions, and that those who do make submissions tend to be opposed and therefore do not reflect the true state of public opinion. The New Zealand Wind Energy Association (a membership-based wind industry...